Pre-orders begin for Nvidia's Shield

So, remember how Nvidia's Shield handheld gaming device was supposed to go up for pre-order on the 20th? Well, it seems that wasn't quite right. The Shield is available to pre-order right now from Newegg.

The e-tailer charges $349 with $4.98 shipping. The listing says there are two full games included (Sonic 4 Episode II THD and Expendable: Rearmed) and quotes a release date of June 4. Earlier this week, Nvidia mentioned a rough June time-frame for the beginning of shipments, so it sounds like the Shield will be available sooner rather than later.

TechCrunch reports Shield pre-orders have also begun at GameStop and Canada Computers, but I can't find product listings at either e-tailer. Searching for "Nvidia shield" brings up an error page at the former and zero matches at the latter. Oh well.

In case you missed the memo, the Shield is a Tegra 4-based handheld console that can run both Android titles and games streamed from a local PC over Wi-Fi. It has an Xbox-style controller, a 5" 720p screen, 2GB of RAM, an HDMI output, and 5-10 hours of battery life for gaming.